On 13th December, SAIL GLOBAL Sanya Sailing base welcomed its first group of ASA 104 trainees this year after they had completed ASA 103 courses at Suzhou base.
As the freezing coldness in the north doesn’t allow a comfortable cruise and ASA 104 requires to practice on bigger sailboat at sea, all of SAIL GLOBAL courses and events were moved to sailing winter base to Sanya, the beautiful seaside city and one of the most popular winter tourist attractions in the south of China for its tropical weather. Therefore, it was a mix of both sailing course and a vacation to temporarily escape from cold winter for our ASA 104 trainees.
It was a great success for the first ASA104 session of SAIL GLOBAL. Among five trainees, there are two pairs of father and son and a gentlemen accompanied by his girlfriend. It is glad to see sailing strengthens the connection among families and couples. Imagine when you encounter stormy weather or a magnificent sunset at sea, nothing is better than going through all those things together with them.
Finally, everybody went through all the necessary course from ASA101 to ASA104, which means that they are eligible to apply for an IPC (International Proficiency Certificate) as long as spend few more hours on VHF license. After that, they are able to charter a sailboat around the world with the certificate and sail with their loved ones independently.
The weather in Sanya is fabulous for sailing with comfortable temperature, plenty of sunshine and wind. Though the weather forecast said it would be cloudy and raining, luckily it failed again just like that it said there would be wind for Christmas sailing event back in Suzhou. Even in the afternoon of third day, boats were not allowed to go out to the sea by the notice because the wind was too strong. However, it was not a big problem. All the necessary knowledge and practices of big sailboat cruising had already been gone through including tacking, jibing, anchoring and other maneuvers in the past days.
Taking anchoring for an example, every trainee had tried anchoring in different conditions. And also a lot of docking practices had been done, including both docking at side and backwards. It was the most challenging part of the course but everyone was excited about it to maneuver a big sailboat of 46 feet with motor at harbor. Trainees had practiced it a lot times till everyone got familiar with it under the guidance of instructor Chris. Finally, he was proud to see everyone had done it well.
On the last day, trainees took the ASA theoretical exam that consists of 100 questions. All of them had scored more than 90, of which 80 is the minimum qualified standard. CONGRATULATIONS!!
Instructor's summary
Though those trainees already had quite a lot of practices and experiences with keel boat (in smaller size) on Taihu Lake, now they just started to handle bigger size sailboat and of course they need more such practices in future. A good base had been laid for their further sailor’s life. That is why they even had booked our boat to intensify skills in next week，and also a VHF course . For sure, they will continue to sail at our club. And we look forward to next groups of trainees for ASA sailing courses very soon in Sanya. The success of this session also proves the correctness of our original strategy of setting up multiple sailing bases in China. Suzhou, Sanya, zhou shan ,Shenzhen and other major bases can well meet the needs of our customers for different types of boats and activities (sailing courses,vacation, etc.) in different regions and seasons.
If you want to take sailing course or to have a leisure cruise holiday in spring-like weather, you are also welcome to contact us. We are always at your service in Sanya this winter.
